Is it relevant yet?

Well it seems that Google's realtime search is growing up. Although the name might be misleading as it seems to only search Twitter. But the question remains, does it matter? Will it have an impact on search and SEO? I decided to poke around and see for myself just what we have here... so mount up folks and we'll go for a ride.

UPDATE; Tony let me know in the comments that it is also picking up FB,as well as FriendFeed (here) They just seems to have less weight. I also noted that a 'site' operator also works;

...anyway, on with the journey...

As any long time readers of the Trail would know, not only do I have an obsession with search engines, but also search evolution. One such evolution over the last few years we've seen the rise of Real Time and Social Search engines.

Google got into the RTS (real time search) last year and as of yesterday, it found it's own home as a vertical. But the question remains, is it relevant and what does it mean to search professionals?

This week's edition of SEO Dojo Radio is now up for all to enjoy! Ok, fine, might not be ALL that exciting, but we're still having fun with it. This week the regulars are back and in fine form. We got into a few things including;

Link Ponds – I bet you don't know what those are do ya? Well neither did we.

Pseudo Search – which is Google's new implicit site searches. Interesting stuff.

Inadequate search content and Demand Media (and related patents)

FaceBook Places – because we're just a social bunch

You Tube paks – Terry, the 'Universal Warrior' will give us the low down

Talking content strategy

In the second portion of the show we have Gabriella Saninno, of Level 343, stopped in to talk to us about content development/strategy.

As many of you might know we Dojo folks are big on content centric SEO programs, great stuff all around! It was a good show and I would DEFINATELY go and give it a listen NOW!

A look at how they see your blog

Have you ever wondered how Google Blog search works? Considered what elements might be different or relative to the regular organic search? Well, a recently awarded patent to Google had me thinking of digging deeper into it all.

Now, as is always the case with patents, we must consider that this was filed in 2005 (as was the sister patent which was awarded in 2007). That means that much of this was likely already in place at that time. But it still makes for some interesting reading towards understanding how Google has gone about the world of Blog search.

In an announcement on the Like.com
homepage the product search engine disclosed they have been acquired by Google.
This is not the first time the two have negotiated, however, Munjal Shah was
then the CEO of Riva. Google
intended to buy
Riya in 2005 for facial and text recognition that enabled intelligent
sorting of untagged photos. In 2006 Riya was unable to monetize a
planned launch of a visual search engine with support for object
recognition. and in a post on Typepad Munjal Shah disclosed a decision to
focus on more lucrative search,

I’m sure you’ve heard this more than once, but you can’t have a one-sided relationship. Period. If you’re guilty of trying this method with your website, where does it leave you? Back to the Internet black hole of never being seen again.

Let’s think this through, shall we?

Dear Website Owner –

After visiting your site three whole times, I have to say it’s over. I’m sorry, I know it hurts, but all you ever want to talk about is you. I have feelings; I’m not just a visitor number. If you’d only asked how I felt once in a while... I know way more about you than I ever wanted to, but you obviously don’t know anything about me.

Signed,

Disillusioned Potential Customer

Get over yourself

“Me me me, us, us, me, the company, you should hire us.”

Sadly, this is how many websites read. They don’t reach out to the consumer in any way until the very end. While it may not read this way to you, anyone who happens to stumble across your virtual doorstep will quickly stumble back the way they came. On the other hand, an excellent consumer-focused website can have them pulling up a chair, kicking their shoes off and staying awhile (hint – you want them to stay awhile).

Facebook Adopts the Google Buzz Strategy

It seems that the Facebook is copying the strategy Google employed with their Buzz product. To Google's credit at least they didn't use the same name for what is essentially the same service. Both "Places" services on these Internet Bohemoth's identify a Place. In Google's case it is information about a Place. In the case of Facebook it seems more about stalking people in a Place but it also sounds like it could be part of their monetization strategy if they charged for 'checkins' at businesses.

Hey gang... we launched this week's edition of SEO Dojo Radio this morning. It was yet another great session, if not a bit crazy with a new record for F-bombs. The first part of the show featured the regulars (myself, Terry and Steve) and Justin came back after some time in the homeland (Ireland).

The premise of the piece was that we may be on the precipice of a world where Google puts less reliance on links and starts to consider other signals. Which made me curious as to what the rest of the search space felt about that. Thus the poll;

Will Google ever get over links?

First off, the funny part for me, was the response the original article recieved. Most folks seemed to agree with me that Google would be evolving past the present addiction. That wasn't entirely borne out in the poll results. With that, only 36% seemed to believe such.

After that, it does seem that most believe that via caffeine or otherwise, that an change may be on the horizon. So why do most of the folks believe Google can't get past the link? Is that because it is so ingrained in our collective conciousness? Is it because they have no faith in Google? It's hard to say. I am going with the former.

What I can tell you is that the IR world itself really doesn't talk about search/ranking in terms of linkage over the last few years. I would venture a guess we most certainly will see a shift... time will tell. Please do head on over to the Dojo and take this week's poll; Are you utilizing RDFa and microformats yet? (right hand side)